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A few days ago, conservatives received a gut shot the equivalent of a sucker punch to the unsuspecting solar plexus. After waiting in long lines to purchase a good but pricey chicken sandwich to show solidarity with a business that had come under assault from the LGBTQ cancel culture, conservatives, who have formed a battle line of defense with their dollars and patronage, were shocked to hear that Chic-Fil-A had abandoned their patrons and supporters at that battle line not unlike David leaving Uriah at the wall to his doom from the archers. Chic-Fil-A has announced it will no longer support organizations that embrace anti-LGBTQ viewpoints with charitable donations.

The most notable non-profit mentioned was The Salvation Army, which Chic-Fil-A is replacing with Covenant House, known for its radical pro-LGTBQ stance. This stunning reversal and capitulation has wounded the millions of Christian conservatives who invested their dollars and trust in a grassroots support campaign that saw the fast food chain double its profits in a year. The outcry and backlash has been immense.

Yet there are some Christian leaders who have, perhaps from an overriding addiction to overpriced chicken sandwiches, decried the outrage. Warning that we may not have all the facts, a call from the “Elect” has gone out to wait, to understand, and “Eat Mor Chiken.” So we waited, hoping, and then Franklin Graham posted an advisement intended to assuage our fears and moderate emotions.

We were assured that Dan Cathey, owner of Chic-Fil-A, had not compromised his Christian values and this was simply a financial “adjustment” by the charitable givings division that would not be giving donations to non-profits that have a stated anti-LGBTQ bias. It would seem that Rev, Graham has been watching too much of the impeachment hearings and has assimilated the doublespeak and double standards of the Democrat Party. The scriptural adage of “By their fruits you shall know them” reminds us starkly that we cannot just simply say we have Christian values.

While Rev. Graham has asked conservatives to completely divorce themselves from common sense, we need to understand first what it means to be anti-LGBTQ. It means stating that there are only two genders, “male and female created He them.” It means believing and stating that those two genders are inherently different than each other by Divine design and it also means being appalled and infuriated when a teenage girl, terrified and in tears, is informed by her “woke” school board that she will be forced to undress in the girls locker room in front of boys who “think” they are girls.

In short, we are now being told that values should be devoid of the Christian by our own Christian leaders. This is what the media has campaigning for decades to achieve and now we have a twofer on the capitulation. A forced acceptance of a new value system without a tethering to a moral sounding board, free to the whim of every popular media generated fad.

It’s a one two gut punch in the space of a week. Maybe Chic-Fil-A will pivot back, although new revelations show this betrayal of values has been a long time coming for the chain purveyor of pricey poultry. Graham’s confusing cover for the capitulation brings into question his qualifications to be a standard bearer for Christian conservatives.

We still hope for a rectification, but for now there are more economical venues for chicken delights. Should the uproar prove to be unfounded, I will look forward to posting an apology. I might even shuck out a few extra bucks for an overpriced chicken sandwich.

For well over a decade, The Maine Conservative Voice has worked to be just that, a conservative voice in the state of Maine. My name is Andy Torbett and I have been The Maine Conservative Voice since its inception. Working with limited means, my limited talents, and outdated decrepit computers, TMCV has somehow been able to have an impact here in rural Maine.

One of our first battles was to bring awareness and fight against Governor Baldacci’s crusade against independent contractors. I also helped to form the Red County Caucus, which was the first Caucus to endorse then candidate Paul LePage for Governor. Later, I would be the state field rep for the NRA-ILA as we joined forces with the Gun Owners of Maine and Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to defeat Bloomberg’s gun control effort, Question 3, in our state.

Along the way, I have used what writing talent I have to try and further conservative ideals and candidates. From time to time fellow activists have encouraged me to run for public office. The timing has never been right.

But now it is. I am announcing my intent to run for County Commissioner in District 2 of Piscataquis County. We have made some unofficial announcements to gauge support and have been encouraged by the positive response.

It has been surprising that some, who I thought were allies, have expressed frustration that I am not running for a more “important” office. I have reasons both personal and philosophical. Let me explain.

The demands of a “higher” office would take me away from my family, business, and ministry in a time when I am needed in those positions consistently. The office of County Commissioner offers the opportunity to have a political impact on my community, while allowing me to remain active in the areas at home that I need to be. But the idea that some would view local government as “lesser” than a state or federal position, shows a fundamental misunderstanding of our Republic and how far we as a people have strayed from the fundamental tenets of local sovereignty.

The spend-thrifty policies at the state and federal level have placed an undue burden on rural Maine. Mandates force the hand of local municipal leaders leaving many rural towns with budgets over leveraged with no room to negotiate to a balanced budget without escalating mil rates. Town after town in Maine are finding themselves with no choice but to deorganize to maintain fiscal solvency.

As the push for small towns to deorganize continues to gain momentum, the role of the Counties will continue to grow. It will be important to have Commissioners who are fiscally conservative to keep a rein on budgets that will have increased demand on them. This is one of the major reasons I am running for commissioner.

I have always had a passion for rural Maine. I love Piscataquis County. I know, that if given the opportunity, I can serve her effectively.

I could use your help. Please consider a donation of any amount to our campaign. You can go to torbett4commissioner.com and learn a little bit more about what we are doing. There is a donate button on the website or you can send your donation to Committee to elect Andy Torbett, 107 Buck Rd, Atkinson, ME, 04426, attention Mark Kinney Treasurer.

I’m looking forward to serving Piscataquis County. With your help we can make it happen. My campaign slogan is Hard Work and Common Sense, which is a tradition in Piscataquis County. Please consider supporting.

The pulse of life. Heroic emergency workers will fight to try and save it. Medical advancements are made in desperate search to heal and prolong its energy.

Expectant parents rejoice to hear its sound throbbing in the womb. Those same parents may have to hope in an anguished expectation that a talented doctor can work within that womb to mend its weakened state. Still others, when aware of its quickening sound within, will seek a doctor to extinguish that spark of life that is the heartbeat.

The simplest way to verify life and death. Does the heart beat? And the most common of senses beats a path to the doorway of the conscience.

For the veil no longer lingers over when the life begins. The heart beats loud its evidence. Now the battle over the value and who will arbitrate the value of a life?

Stark lines are drawn between those who call to God as the giver of life and those who call on government to arbitrate who is worthy to live. Those who abhor an earthly litigation for life or death are now forced by that government to fund and support the very thing they despise. A thing history describes as tyranny itself.

It stands before us now that those who hold power will arbitrate life and death. If this is true, we are traitors to all that history has warned us. In the shadows, once so distant, nearer now in the hallows, the ghastly specters of humanity, who wielded horribly the power to chose those worthy of life and death, seem just a heartbeat away.

A comedian once joked that he loved all of his kids, but there was a couple he just didn’t like. As with all good comedy, the hyperbole is often grounded in truth. To love does not always mean you have to like.

Today relationships seem more littered with eggshells than honesty. Any parent raising children can acknowledge that our love is unconditional, but our children can have behavioral cycles that are just plain unlikable. Parents can explain the reasons we don’t like the child right now, and guide them toward the path of change.

But the modern counselor will tell you to dislike, to critique, and to admonish is to hate. All negativity is to be muted in an all embracing malleable sponge that squishes every action into a mush of acceptability. Defining love as never challenging, never exposing, and never exacting, the new society now is at loss to understand why the new generation of young adults are emotionally paralyzed at the slightest hint of adversity, never acknowledging that they have been programmed to think, if they are not liked, they are not loved but hated.

Ah, then there is the Christian whose words of rebuke are not the loving words of Jesus Christ. The same Christ who fashioned a whip to chase money-changers out of the Temple calling them thieves. He called people liars, hypocrites, dull of wit, slow of heart, children of Satan, and the list goes.

There were lots of people on this earth Christ didn’t like but he loved them all enough to die on cross for them. Christ didn’t accept every act of every person and neither should I. My faith demands that I love all humankind, but I don’t have to like you.